My Pages

Friday, 29 July 2011

Our propensity for the macabre, the grotesque and unconscionably evil is about to be sated when one of the American networks finally wins the bid to interview Casey Anthony, the mother of a Caylee Anthony [1] who was acquitted just about a month ago of all charges of culpability including murder despite all circumstantial evidence pointing to her possible guilt.

In what the non-mean-spirited would call blood money [2] and even so on the blood of an innocent child, the going rate is topping $1.5 million with the networks pretending to vie for every seemingly unassociated right to the interview itself which they protest is not being paid for.

The fact is, there is an audience for this kind of theatre of the absurd and one can be sure that since she is protected by the double jeopardy rule, she can sail as close to the wind on this matter as she can dare and the viewers will be fed their just portion of gasping with horror along with the entertainment of reality television, untouched, unaffected and barely outraged.

Another case of childhood cruelty

As if that is not saddening enough, the truth is many children still suffer atrocious abuse and unspeakable cruelty amongst the people we naturally assume they are to find some care, comfort, security and love with.

We are told that the family unit or extended family construct presents the best atmosphere for childhood development; by extension some will even say it takes a village or a community to raise a child.

Some children however see every day through like a living hell on earth with no respite, all hands and minds mechanised in the systematic dehumanisation of child that it were better the child had never been born or for salvation the situation is so dire that death is the only escape.

So, became the case of 10-year old, Ame Deal [3] who was found dead locked up in a box much smaller than her size as punishment for having taking a popsicle without permission.

Your heart just bleeds

She lived with her grandmother, her aunt, her elder cousin and the male cousin by marriage; the latter two being the ones most culpable for locking the girl in a storage container.

Their act as we learn from the story was not isolated but the pattern of treatment that they would have found examples of in the supposedly matronly matriarchs of the household.

They had before imprisoned her in the container, exacted physical and several corporal punishments on the child probably for their pleasure, she was made to sleep in the shower after bed-wetting and was found dirty wearing soiled clothes.

They showed her not one bit of affection and if they were so revolted by her presence, nothing on this earth could have justified the kind of suffering she endured until she drew her last breath.

A cry for justice

For having taken a popsicle without permission, she had already been forced to perform exercises, such as jumping jacks, running in circles and back bends, for over an hour before being padlocked in a cage like an animal.

Where any living soul gets to assume this level of despicable treatment that excoriation cannot begin to contemn in the strongest terms is just out of this world.

Justice will not be well served until all those responsible for the death of this innocent child are made to face the full force of the law. Sadly, Casey Anthony appears to set the precedent for people who might get away with the murder of their wards.

Is there a jury in the land with a conscience, maybe one with feeling and hopefully one that might just seek justice for that tortured soul that was caged like a dog for the sake of a measly popsicle, she, Ame Deal, was above all the victim of this heinous crime against every sinew of humanity we have?